‘Halo 5’ Forge Tool Coming To PC, Will This Pave The Way For ‘Halo’ On PC?
Are 343 Industries and Microsoft testing the waters of Halo returning to the PC? The companies announced that Halo 5‘s Forge tool is coming to Windows 10 as a free release later in 2016. Not only does it make creating and editing in Forge easier than on the Xbox One, but it allows the developer to test out the game engine on the platform.
The Windows 10 release is titled Forge – Halo 5: Guardians Edition in a clear attempt to ensure those downloading the tool are not aware they are not getting the full game. How well that works remains to be seen, but some welcome new features are being added with the release.
Forge provides the tools for Xbox One owners to create their own maps, multiplayer modes, and mini-games for Halo 5. This is all being brought to Windows 10 PCs with the ability to use a keyboard and mouse. This will provide a much finer level of control for creators to move and place objects around the game world than is currently available using a gamepad and should result in even higher quality maps.
Creations made using Forge – Halo 5: Guardians Edition can be tested and played with friends on PCs. It’s not the full Halo 5 multiplayer experience, but it’s an obvious opportunity for 343 Industries to develop and test the game engine on the Windows 10 platform. Any maps, modes, or mini-games created using Forge on the PC can be published to the Xbox One.
Turn 10 Studios is doing something similar with Forza Motorsport 6: Apex for Windows 10. This is a pared down experience from the Forza 6 release on Xbox One, but one that provides an entry point for the racing simulator developer to bring its games over to Windows 10 without dealing with the headaches of a full game release with tons of unknown factors.
It is already known Turn 10 Studios will bring all future Forza games to both Windows 10 and Xbox One. Neither Microsoft, nor 343 Industries, have officially announced future Halo titles will also be released for PC, but that’s what they appear to be setting up with Forge – Halo 5: Guardians Edition.
Microsoft will host an Xbox E3 2016 briefing on Monday, June 13 at 12:30 p.m. ET / 9:30 a.m. PT. That seems a likely spot for additional details about the Forge – Halo 5: Guardians Edition initiative and future plans for the Windows 10 platform to be revealed. It can be watched on Xbox.com, the Xbox Twitch Channel, YouTube, via the Xbox Live Events Player on Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles, and SpikeTV.
“Forge on the PC will finally give the mouse/keyboard editing precision the community has always been clamoring for. On top of that, an updated and optimized UI geared towards mouse interactions makes a lot of the inputs in Forge easier/faster than before.
“Since we released Forge in Halo 5 we’ve seen so many amazing new things come from it – from weird mini-games we could have never anticipated to meticulously crafted maps that are even approaching the visual quality of internally built maps. The team has continued to wonder what we’d get if we could put Forge in the hands of as many people as possible, and making it free on Windows 10 literally gives the chance to anyone who wants to jump in and try their hands at building a cool new map for Halo 5. I’m excited to see what the future content from the community will bring!”
[Image via Halo Waypoint]
